“I’ve got the old pickaxe,” said Bruce, “all ready in case of need.”
“Whether we find anything or not, it will satisfy our minds.”
“Yes, and then, you know, we can leave the hole open, and explain to the others why we dug it. We can induce them also to do a little more digging, perhaps.”
“But if we find anything there’ll be a still stronger temptation to dig.”
“O, if we find anything, all the cellars in the place will be turned inside out.”
“David Digg will have a chance to prove himself deserving of his name.”
“What a joke it would be if Pat were to see us! He’d be wild with curiosity, and follow us so as to see.”
“O, there’s no danger. Nobody’ll come—that’s just because we want them,” said Phil.
Chatting in this way they marched up the hill, back again to the old French orchard, which they reached without having attracted the smallest attention from anybody, and at length they all stood once more with their spades by the cellar. Very different was this occasion from the last, and they all felt it so. The last had been one of pure fun and nonsense, disturbed, however, by the tremors of some of their number; this time, on the contrary, was an occasion in which business seemed to predominate.
They paused for a little while on the edge of the cellar, before committing themselves to their work.